Rappers' ode to 'miracles' taps into anti-science angst

November 30, 2010|By John Keilman

You will rarely hear a more bizarre song than "Miracles." It's an online hit performed by the Insane Clown Posse, a pair of foul-mouthed rappers known for their unsettling stage makeup and extravagantly violent lyrics, and it celebrates rainbows, giraffes and butterflies without a trace of irony.

The point of the song is to recognize the marvels of everyday life — its most famous line, beloved by hipsters everywhere, is "(Bleeping) magnets, how do they work?" — but some have found a troubling undercurrent in its rhymes, particularly this one:

And I don't want to talk to a scientist

Y'all (bleepy bleepers) lying, and getting me pissed.

Some bloggers have denounced the song as a tribute to ignorance, but one of the clowns, a husky fellow who goes by the name Violent J, defended it in an interview last month.

"Sometimes (scientists) kill all the cool mysteries away," he told the British newspaper The Guardian. "When I was a kid, they couldn't tell you how the pyramids were made. … But since then, scientists go, 'I've got an explanation for that.' It's like, '(Bleep) you!' I like to believe it was something out of this world."

I have nothing against science. My father earned a Ph.D. in microbiology and my brother got one in physics. I'm grateful for the fruits of the scientific method, from polio vaccines to jet travel. And I'm glad that when my kids get strep throat, their doctor doesn't say, "(Bleeping) antibiotics, how do they work?"

But I understand the sentiment behind the song. In a world that seems ever more devoid of solid answers, it's easy to get pissed at the folks in lab coats.

They're killjoys, telling us there's little or no evidence to justify our treasured folk remedies (pomegranate juice, magnetic necklaces or, in my case, echinacea). They're maddeningly inconsistent, publishing studies that come to precisely opposite conclusions. Their objectivity can be suspect, since many take money from companies that stand to profit from favorable findings.

And, quite often, they're wrong. The Atlantic recently profiled Dr. John Ioannidis, a scientist who specializes in uncovering bias, data manipulation and overblown claims in widely accepted medical research. He said the entire system is plagued by the pressure to call something a breakthrough, even when the truth is murky.

"Science is a noble endeavor, but it's also a low-yield endeavor," he told the magazine. "I'm not sure that more than a very small percentage of medical research is ever likely to lead to major improvements in clinical outcomes and quality of life. We should be very comfortable with that fact."

Oh, but we're not. Americans in particular aren't good with the whole ambiguity thing. We want answers. We want results. And we don't want to hear anything about preliminary data or confidence levels.

This is a problem when many of today's personal dilemmas and public plights have scientific dimensions. Should my kid have that vaccination? Will my cell phone give me cancer? Just how urgent of a menace is global warming?

The answers tend to come in unsatisfying shades of gray, and not many of us have the time, brainpower or fortitude to weigh the evidence. It's no surprise that some throw in the towel, adopting whatever position suits their world view or declaring all the universe to be an unknowable mystery — even the (bleeping) magnets.

Jo Ellen Roseman has the task of helping Americans overcome that mental sluggishness. She's the director of Project 2061, a scientific literacy program run by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and when she watched the video for "Miracles," she was struck by its mixed messages.

Some things, such as the origin of life, do indeed remain shrouded in uncertainty. But she pointed out that the video also features images of DNA's double helix — "something we never would have had a clue about in the absence of scientists," she said.

The threshold for wonders that will "blow your brains," as the Clowns put it, probably should be a little higher than air and dirt, to name two things on their list. But there's no doubt that plenty are still out there. String theory, consciousness and the edges of the universe are just some of the neuron-melting enigmas that scientists are trying to figure out. They deserve our respect.

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